to ten days quarantine. a national day of mourning in israel, after 45 people were killed a crush at a jewish festival early on friday. north korea has accused president biden of pursuing a hostile policy towards it, and has warned that the united states will get hurt if it provokes pyongyang. the crowds are coming back. 5,000 people will gather at a music festival in liverpool today to see headline act the blossoms as studies continue into the spread of coronavirus. during the past year of social restrictions and isolation, sometimes all you really want is someone to talk to. and for elaine, a widow who had to spend lockdown on her own, her loneliness was kept at bay by speaking on the phone to an age uk volunteer. and now they've been able to meet in person for the first time, as peter harris reports. the familiar voice of a woman

eileen had never met. hello, eileen. diane was her telephone friend throughout the pandemic and today they were able to meet face—to—face at last. i think it makes a big difference that somebody cares. how much difference having someone you could talk to? terrific. we've had a good laugh, haven't we? we just realised that we at the same sense of humour i think and i would tell her tales and it would make her laugh, so i would tell her some more and i would stop you. just worked out really well. eileen has been on her own since losing her husband but there's many

like her and age uk has lottery funding to maintain the telephone service. we found we had a lot of people volunteer to wanted to do it you have been furloughed and a lot of customers wanting to come on board who needed some extra support, so that is how the project snowballed. and those like diane who volunteered with the telephone service found the rewards flowed both ways. it must have been important to you as well that you're really helping somebody out. it's been really good. i've really enjoyed it. of course you have.

the phone calls were a lifeline but nothing quite like meeting up. super—duper. now on bbc news, the travel show. christa larwood looks back at some of the shows favourite city adventures — with lucy hedges in the big apple and henry golding in singapore. coming up on the show — getting up close to an american icon in new york. now for the the piece de resistance. the original. cooking up a michelin star takeaway in singapore. so this is the chef extraordinaire. the original. cooking up a michelin star takeaway in singapore. so this is the chef extraordinaire. and i am on the hunt for london's fast—disappearing red phone boxes. if you say london, it is the telephone, the red telephone box. hello and welcome to the travel show with me, christa marwood, still here

at home in london, but as you can see some things are starting to return to normal and fingers crossed we will be back up on the road sometime soon — until then, this week let's take a look at some of our favourite trips to the world's most vibrant cities here on the show. well, new york is always one of our favourite attractions. maybe it's the sheer noise, bustle and knowledge that under normal circumstances, it really does feel like the city that never sleeps. and back in 2019, lucy was lucky enough to be given a behind the scenes look at one of the city's newest and perhaps most iconic attractions. lucy: i was up at 5am to catch the star ferry, the very first boat of the day to leave for liberty island hours before

the arrival of the public. wow! i've never seen the statue this close before. definitely worth the ungodly wake—up call. until recently, visitors that wanted to learn more about the statue�*s history were directed to an exhibit in its base. but the space was so limited, only a few people actually got to see it. that's all set to change with the opening of the new museum. the museum takes people all the way back to the statue�*s creation. it was designed by frederic august bartholdi, who built it in his paris workshop. the statue marked 100 years since the declaration of independence and

the historic alliance between america and france. in 1885, it was shipped in 350 individual pieces over to new york, where it was reassembled and unveiled to the american public the next year. now for the the piece de resistance, the original torch. the original torch! wow! the original torch, it stood up there from 1886 until 1984. the original torch had been changed from bartholdi's design to include a glass—paneled frame that could be lit up at night. in the 1980s, it was removed and replaced during a massive restoration of the statue. talk to me about how difficult it was to get the torch in here. well, i didn't have to do it! but it was quite a task. people worked for about two weeks from 3pm in the afternoon until 3am at night.

they had this carrier that they laid the face on its back, and then put the torch on it. we had not put in all the glass here so that it could lift quite nicely into its position, and it all worked quite well. and here it is. martin and his team have been in charge of conserving the torch and cleaning it up. well, today is the last day, it's sort of the clean down from the top down, and so as they're finishing up the lighting fixtures inside, myjob is then the final clean—down of everything that falls down. you're one of the last people who get to be here before it's off. i do feel very honoured. it's so iconic and you think

about its history and how it stood for freedom and for liberty to people all over the world. it really is a remarkable piece of work. lucy getting a close—up look at lady liberty back in 2019. for many travellers, one of the benefits of exploring the world is getting the chance to try all sorts of local cuisine. back in 2016 henry visited singapore to meet a man whose street food and him a michelin star. henry: this is singapore's largest hawker markets in the heart of chinatown, and it's rampacked with stalls selling traditional dishes. 0ne stall in particular is causing quite a stir. this queue is absolutely humongous, full of all sorts of people from singapore, from around the world, there's a lot of tourists. you can imagine it for some sort

of concert, but in fact it's for that hawker stall over there — it's one of two recipients here in singapore that actually achieved a michelin star, so i'm going to meet the chef. hawker—chan! hi! so this is the chef extraordinaire, hawker—chan. and he's been doing this for over 30 years, right? yeah. wow! the stall has become famous for serving the world's cheapest michelin star meal. we're a well—oiled machine here, but i'm feeling the pressure. so one, one sauce here? 0ne portion costs less than us$2. but the waits can be up to three hours. 0h! it's the rice! boiling! that was pretty good.

there are fears the tradition might die out.

most of the hawkers, the kids don't want to do it because it is hard work, hot, long hours, and if you sell any of the hawker food for more than $3 or $4, but is it a big question. we have to change the perception of hawker food as being cheap. wow, so this is like a full one—woman operation then? it is hard work, long hours, if you can sell any of it for three or $4, it is not a question, three or £4, we have to change the perception of it as being cheap. so this is like a one—woman operation? just you in the morning? one—woman operation? just me in the morning. one—woman operation? this were actually encourage more youngsters to start a business in maybe a little bit better environment. it is not a traditional hawker centre, it is more rowdy, like i have made my food to this place because it is more of a hipster area. it is still hot and hard work but it is hoped these new, more contemporary surroundings will encourage the next generation of singaporeans to keep creating some of the

best street food in the world. henry helping, hopefully not hindering, hawker—chan to keep his michelin star back in 2016. stay with us, because coming up on the show... wejump on board a magical bus in karachi. there isjust so much more to karachi than we know. and i go in search of london's disappearing red phone boxes. so don't go away. now, karachi is pakistan's biggest city and almost 50 million people call it home. but it has had something of a reputation for not being the easiest, or maybe safest placed forward tourists to explore. back in 2017, ben went there to meet a group of people working to change that. ben: i want to get a taste of karachi and when you think of a tour you think of a friendly tour guide, some foreigners, a casual stroll around the city. but in karachi it is much different, it is done on one of these things.

in a city linked more with bombs and guns than tourist traps, the super savari express seems like a strange choice. but this is a unique kind of tour bus, not only to change

the image of karachi. it is mainly to help karachi's locals reconnect with their city. each tour will come with an armed guard, and at the old days, but as the situation has improved it is now beautiful bus. i love this bus, it is incredible. what is the history? you see it everywhere in karachi. the concept works along the lines of this why do you think a city like karachi need something like this? there has been a disconnect tween educated persons in karachi and the general population. and you do this because you think that karachi is misrepresented, and has a reputation that needs to be preserved? let's just say that there is so much more to karachi than we know. there is something special about this that i have to show you guys. the tour takes visitors around the city in an attempt to show its diversity. you visit mosques, hindu temples, churches, karachi's version of the big ben and and is time forfood. sorry. i am going to ruin your tea party... the guy said it's traditional pakistani breakfast. traditional pakistani breakfast is you get chai, and what is essentially an omelette. most things in pakistan are made spicy, same thing with omelettes. my stomach noticed that a few days ago. you dip some of that in chai.

i am just ruining the tea. just soggy pieces of dough in my tea. our next stop... this is widely regarded as the most dangerous area of karachi. here there is only really one sport people care about and that is football. there is over 175 registered clubs, and that is because these guys, like everyone else, absolutely love it. everywhere you look you see manchester united tops, real madrid tops and hopefully liverpool tops. i am here to find out why that is the case. there is a centre of excellence where we have approximately 100 kids who come across to train four or five times a week. we give them free football coaching, we give them life skills, sessions on top of it. i have been asked to

have a game with these kids, who looked pretty good. i am wearing a liverpool top. so everyone thinks i play for liverpool, a huge crowd had gathered. so yeah, look forward to me embarrassing myself in front of everyone. here we go. after eyeing up the opposition, we began. the sand and heat is not a good combination. soon, though, we were losing by two goals. liverpool one, karachi united three! me and my new friend realised it was our moment, and after generously being awarded a free kick i curled it the corner. then two penalties later, we had won the game. after celebrating with my team, adequately named benjamin's liverpool warriors, we spoke about football. you are nervous about playing, because you are the only girl here, is this the first time you play here? if you were to look

around, and there is a game going on there, and academy here, i think i am the only female in the stadium right now. sometimes we go into an area where the culture is extremely male dominant and they don't want females to play, we are eager to play, we are keen to play, which is something very difficult in pakistan, to get girls excited about sports. there are 100 boys who come to the academy here, there is maybe 35 girls who come, so that is about theratio. —— there is maybe 35 girls who come, so that is about the ratio. to me that is fantastic, because two years ago there was zero. and football has kicked off in areas that have been otherwise neglected. these guys have come up with their own recreation, solving their own problems, and football is kind of inherent to the game, solving your own problems. 0h! ben there on—board what must be one of the world's most colourful tour buses back in 2017. if you cast your mind back to when travel wasn't quite as

difficult as it is now, there was still the eternal dilemma, what to do with a lengthy airport layover? well, we sent ade the challenge back in 2017, how much could he fit into a six hour stopover in rome? ade: so you find yourself stuck here at leonardo da vinci airport, and this is one of the largest in italy and it is a central hub for its national airline. unfortunately, rome is ranked as one of the most delayed airports in world, so you're probably going to find yourself with a time on your hands. so i am going to make it more interesting and set myself a challenge to see rome in under six hours. hello! how are you, nice to meet you.

buongiorno! i want to see the coliseum, the circus maximus, the palatine hill, the mouth of truth, and of course the trevi fountain. the first proper stop here is to go and see the circus maximus older than the coliseum and with a capacity of hundreds of thousands of people, it was at the heart of rome's brutal public entertainment, the gladiators, to you and me. this was the place for the spectators, the excavations over there. and spectators sat all around. and resting just above the site is the palatine hill which is one of the most ancient parts of the city.

next stop is a little hidden gem. it is the mouth of truth. if you are a liar and you put the hand inside the mouth, your hand will be cut. laughs. every time i see the trevi fountain it always takes my breath away because it is so beautiful. must—see monuments in rome. one of the downsides of a tour like this is that there is no real time to stop and really enjoy the sights, because of the tight schedule. but they give you a great taste of what is on offer. and who knows, maybe one day i'll back to explore rome at a more leisurely pace. ade there cramming in the ancient roman sites back in 2017.

to finish off this week we are in my adopted home town of london, famous of course for its bright red buses and until relatively recently, its red phone boxes. but since the arrival of these things, fewer and fewer people have been using the public phones. so back in 2019, i reported on a programme to remove those iconic red boxes from london's streets. after all, it is only tourists that would miss them, right? the red phone box is synonymous with london. when they were first introduced in the 1920s, they gave many poorer londoners access to the phone for the very first time, and after countless appearances in films, tv shows and music videos, they became something of an icon both here and around the world. if you say london, it is the red telephone box.

the first thing that comes into my mind when i think of britain, was either the queen or the red phone booth. although as more people got access to their own phone at home, the numbers of actual calls being made from them dropped. now, i can remember when i first came here 20 years ago, using a phone box was a really big event, it was like, "i have arrived in london." and i probably took several dozen selfies in one of these things. these days it is just clear it isn't being used much. and frankly it isn't the nicest place to be. the smell is not ideal, either. i might get out of here. even though a lot of these phone boxes aren't in the best shape now, there is a group of londoners who still take pride in them, and the postcard image they portray. i thinkjust because phone boxes are british icons, for them to look scruffy in the photos that are going back around the world with tourists after their holidays,

i didn't like that idea. so i thought, why not clean them up? it's only polite. seeing one in a completely sorry state was almost like seeing an elderly relative in distress or something. we like to help emily, we think it is a worthy cause and we are loyal friends. it looks nice when they are all scrubbed up. emily and her band of volunteers regularly spend their spare time sprucing up phone boxes like these for sightseers. but it looks like even their valiant efforts might not be enough to save them. they are difficult to keep clean, and they're not very _ easy for people with disabilities to use, i and we are obliged to - have a quite high percentage of payphones which can be used by people with disabilities. - so the question is, what's going to happen to the old red phone boxes we've all

come to know and love? some have been put up for sale, and some are being offered to local communities to turn into things like public libraries. others are already being rented out to businesses who see the beauty in keeping things small — like fouad, who now repairs phones inside a phone box. i am not claustrophobic at all. if you work in an iconic place you are iconic too. other businesses that have cropped up include cafes, coffee bars, and souvenir shops, all crammed inside a square metre of floor space. if you think of all the conversations these four walls must have overheard, declarations of love, cries of emergency or whispers of espionage. these walls have heard it all, every type of conversation. and i think it is sad to see them now empty.

sadly, that is all we have got time for on this week's programme but i hope we have given you enough inspiration to keep going until we can all travel again. coming up next week: it is the turn of technology in the final part of our series in which ade looks at some of the issues to take shape travel as we get back out on the road. so dojoin us then if you can. in the meantime you can catch up with more of our recent programmes on bbc iplayer and we are on social media in all the usual places. until next time from me and all the travel show team, it's goodbye.

hello there, keep an eye on the sky through the rest of the day because one minute the sun may be shining, the next a big grey cloud will come along and give you a real drenching. some very heavy downpours in the forecast and then for tomorrow it's going to be more a case of heavy and persistent rain, that rain quite widespread — you can see the unsettled weather gathering out in the atlantic. but in the shorter term, yes, we have got some clear skies around. that's why we are seeing some sunshine but areas of cloud bubbling up and some showers in the afternoon, some of which will be heavy with some hail and some thunder mixed in. the winds very, very light so if you catch a shower it could be with you for quite some time, it's not going to to go scoot along quickly, but in the sun not feeling too bad. the sun is strong this time

of year, temperatures between eight and 14 degrees. now, the showers will fade through the evening. a slice of clear weather for the first half of the night but then we see cloud gathering out west, some rain getting in to a slice of clear weather for the first half of the night but then we see cloud gathering out west, some rain getting in to northern ireland by the end of the night. a milder night for most of us but for the far north of england and certainly across scotland we could once again see a touch of frost. into tomorrow, low pressure on the scene, this is going to bring a milder night for most of us but for the far north of england and certainly across scotland we could once again see a touch of frost. into tomorrow, low pressure on the scene, this is going to bring some very wet and very windy weather for bank holiday monday. certainly across scotland we could once again see a touch of frost. into tomorrow, low pressure on the scene, this is going to bring some very wet and very windy weather for bank holiday monday. some areas across the east of the uk will start off dry but rain from the word go across northern ireland and that will push eastward throughout the day, some of that rain will be heavy and we will see some wintry weather

mixing and over the very highest ground, the pennines and southern uplands, the grampians saw a little bit of snow on the very highest ground. here it is going to be a very windy day and we can expect gusts of maybe 50 mph to 60 mph over exposed southern and western coasts. with the cloud and rain and wind it will feel really disappointing, top temperatures between seven and 12 degrees. it stays quite blustery through monday night. much of the rain will start to clear away, as our area of low pressure rolls away eastwards but behind it you can see the white lines, the isobars. you can follow them all away up to the arctic. that showers with the air will be coming from through the first part of the coming week, that air coming down from the north and that northerly wind feeding chilly conditions in our directions. so it is a mix of sunshine and showers through the coming week. cold days, possibly frosty nights.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. india has recorded its highest number of coronavirus deaths in a single day since the start of the pandemic. people in the uk may not need to self—isolate if they have been in close contact with someone with covid. daily rapid covid tests will be offered as an alternative to ten days quarantine. if they test positive, then they're required to isolate, and they have to take a confirmatory pcr test. so, again, it's a really important time for us to collect these data. so, hopefully, this may be more of a normal situation, so that we can move away from this very, very costly, long isolation. a national day of mourning in israel, after 45 people were killed a crush at a jewish festival early on friday. north korea has accused

president biden of pursuing a hostile policy towards it, and has warned that the